Reimagining Nuclear Arms Control: A Comprehensive Approach
James M. Acton, Thomas MacDonald, and Pranay Vaddi | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
To try to find common ground, this report presents nine detailed practical measures that—implemented individually or as part of a package—would help address each state’s specific security concerns and the shared dangers of arms racing and inadvertent escalation.
How the United States Can Use AUKUS to Strengthen Nuclear Nonproliferation
Ariel (Eli) Levite and Toby Dalton | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Using AUKUS to strengthen nonproliferation would require skillful diplomacy and creative technical spadework. First, AUKUS parties (and the IAEA) should agree on transparency and other behavioral restraints by Australia that set expectations for other countries that pursue naval nuclear propulsion. Second, the United States and like-minded partners should develop and promote new nuclear supply initiatives and practices that both make nuclear technology more available and clarify conditions for fissile material possession. And third, the IAEA and government partners should build a more holistic approach to assessing future nuclear proliferation.
Nuclear Command-and-Control Satellites Should Be Off Limits
James Acton and Thomas MacDonald | Defense One
When Russia blew up an old satellite with a new missile on November 15, it created an expanding cloud of debris that will menace the outer space environment for years to come. … But the greatest danger that this careless stunt highlighted is to a different potential target: high-altitude satellites used for nuclear command and control. Those critical satellites face the threat of being attacked by co-orbital anti-satellite weapons, that is, other spacecraft with offensive capabilities. Destroying a nuclear command-and-control satellite, even unintentionally, could lead a conventional conflict to escalate into a nuclear war. As such, the United States, China, and Russia have a shared interest in ensuring the security of each other’s high-altitude satellites.
Iran and U.N. Watchdog Agree on Nuclear Verification Issue as Wider Negotiations Struggle
Sarah Dadouch and Karen DeYoung | Washington Post
Iran and the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency announced Wednesday that they have reached an agreement on one of the most serious outstanding verification issues between them, offering a possible breakthrough in negotiations here over Iran’s nuclear program. In reports confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, government-affiliated Iranian news agencies said that Tehran had “voluntarily” agreed to allow the IAEA to replace monitoring cameras that were damaged by an alleged Israeli sabotage strike last summer at a facility manufacturing components for advanced uranium centrifuges.
10 Years at Helm, Kim Jong Un’s Nukes Are Still ‘Magic Wand’
Hyung-Jin Kim | Associated Press
As Kim Jong Un marks 10 years in power this week, the world still doesn’t quite know what to make of the North Korean leader. Is he the playful scamp who once gave an underling a piggyback ride after a rocket engine test? Or the Western-educated leader tearfully commiserating with his people’s economic misery? How about the global statesman, shaking hands with South Korean and American leaders? Or maybe the brutal pragmatist who had his uncle and virtual No. 2 — along with dozens of others — executed? Since taking over supreme leadership a decade ago, Kim has presented many faces to an insatiably curious world, but while the image shifts perhaps the most telling way to consider Kim is through his persistent pursuit of a nuclear weapons program meant to target America and its allies.
Scholar Robert L. Jervis Passed Away This Month. He Pushed Policymakers to See the World’s Complexity.
Stacie Goddard, Jack Snyder and Keren Yarhi-Milo | Washington Post
On Dec. 9, political scientist Robert L. Jervis died of lung cancer. Jervis was the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University and a member of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs. He died at home, in the presence of Kathe, his wife of 54 years, and his daughters, Alexa and Lisa. Jervis was an intellectual giant. … Jervis’s work shaped not only international relations theory but the fields of history, psychology and sociology. His analyses of intelligence and nuclear weapons reached beyond academia to the American policy community. And he will be remembered for his generosity, his kindness and his humor.